


But the World is So Big

by amycooper



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 17:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14337903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amycooper/pseuds/amycooper
Summary: Sam finds Gabriel in his room late that night after episode 13x18.





	But the World is So Big

Sam Winchester couldn’t sleep.

 

By all rights he should be exhausted.  He’s been up how many days now? Since he feel asleep researching and Dean put sticky notes on his back, right before they went up against Yokoth.  And once that case ended, suddenly he was caring for Gabriel while his brother was out in an alternative universe looking for Mom and Jack.

 

Now Cas had gone off in search of Gabriel. Sam wasn’t sure if he was more eager to come up with solutions or appease Dean’s anger.  And Dean...Dean drank himself to sleep a couple of hours ago. But Sam, no matter how long he lay in bed, he just couldn’t fall asleep.

 

Sam sighed and reached over to turn on the bedside light.  No use laying in bed. Maybe he could do some research in the library to get a leg up on Michael or Lucifer.  As he sat up, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye and, out of reflex, went for his gun, but aborted the movement as soon as he realized what it was.

 

It was Gabriel, once again curled up in a tight ball, this time next to his desk.

 

Sam froze, uncertain what to do next.  Afraid he’d spook the archangel. He looked Gabriel over. He looked clean and whole and dressed now: tan pants, black shirt, olive jacket.  

 

“I know you’re watching at me,” Gabriel muttered with a bit of his old bite.

 

“Yeah,” Sam said awkwardly.  He slowly climbed out of bed and sat down on the floor next to Gabriel: not too close, but not so far away that he couldn’t reach out to him.  Clearly he wasn’t quite as alright as he first appeared after defeating Asmodaeous, but at least he was talking.

 

Sam tried not to stare.  Gabriel sighed and uncurled slightly.

 

“Not going to try and recruit me?”

 

“Would you stay if I did?”

 

“No.” 

 

“Than I won’t.”

 

Gabriel shot Sam a skeptical look.

 

“Okay, at least not tonight.”  There was a long pause before Sam asked, “Why’d you come back?”

 

“Do you know the phones look different now?”

 

“What?”

 

“They’re all screen, no buttons.”

 

“Yeah,” Sam said slowly.  “I guess they’ve changed while you were away.”

 

Gabriel huffed.

 

“I guess a lot must have changed while you were, ah, you know.  It must be hard adjusting to so much lost time.”

 

“What?  Eight puny years?  That’s nothing,” Gabriel said curling up tighter again, “blink of the eye.”

 

“Yeah, maybe,” Sam said.  He had some doubts how quickly those last eight years felt like for Gabriel.

 

The two were quiet.  Gabriel began rocking softly.

 

“So why here and not Monte Carlo?”

 

“Well, you know, wing cramp.  Don’t know the current pornstars-yet.”

 

Sam watched Gabriel rock for a couple minutes.  He seemed so confident when he took out the last Prince of Hell.  But was he, really? He left so quickly after he and Cas tried to get him to join the team.  Maybe it was too much, too soon. “I thought you were better.”

 

“I am better,” Gabriel let out a frustrated, theatrical sigh and stilled.  “I’m just…”

 

“Adjusting.”

 

“Adjusting.” Gabriel agreed.

 

Sam thought for a minute.  “Do you remember how I told you we stopped the Apocalypse? We were on the run shortly after I got out of the cage and got my soul back.”

 

“Now that sounds like a story,” Gabriel said.  There wasn’t time to tell Gabriel everything, so Sam and Cas skipped over most the of the Leviathan stuff. 

 

Sam gave a quick half smile but continued.  “Nowhere I went seemed safe, you know? Bobby’s house was probably the closest we’d ever had to a home back then and it was burned down.  We had to ditch Baby for a while. I can’t tell you how much I wished I could go back to either, but I couldn’t.”

 

“You had Dean though,” Gabriel said.  Sam was relieved to see the archangel’s body relaxing.

 

“Yeah.  I mean, he could be a real pain in the ass sometimes and whenever I wanted to talk about my feelings he’d make some noise about chick flick moments but he was there for me.”  Sam paused a beat, “I want you to know, you’re always welcome here if you know, you need a place or a person to talk to.”

 

To Sam’s surprise, Gabriel scootched closer and leaned into him.  Sam slowly wrapped an arm around the angel.

 

“I’m going to leave again soon.”  Gabriel say and he made himself comfortable.

 

“That’s okay.”

 

The two sat still like that for a good long while.  Sam’s eyes began to droop.

 

“I forgot how big the world is,” Gabriel whispered.

 

The last thing Sam remembered was giving Gabriel a little squeeze.  When Sam woke, Gabriel was gone.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I may turn this into a series of stories about Gabriel visiting Sam, if it makes sense in the upcoming episodes to do so.


End file.
